This invention relates to magnetic latent image forming apparatus in which a magnetic medium is selectively heated so that the intensity of magnetization of selected portions thereof can be varied to thereby form a magnetic latent image. More particularly, the invention is related to a magnetic latent image forming apparatus in which a magnetic medium, after being heated, is subjected to a bias magnetic field, so that a magnetic latent image is formed. Such a single-tone apparatus is disclosed in related copending application Ser. No. 235,366 filed Feb. 19, 1981, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In order to form an image with such a conventional magnetic latent image forming apparatus, the magnetic medium is heated to the Curie temperature or higher. Therefore, such conventional apparatus is disadvantageous in that a large amount of energy is necessary for forming a single-tone image, and accordingly the manufacturing cost is relatively high.